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Torchetti fills everything Red Wings wanted in an assistant coach |
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The Detroit Red Wings completed their coaching staff Thursday with the addition John Torchetti, most recently the interim head coach of the Minnesota Wild, as an assistant coach who will handle the forwards during games and oversee the Detroit power play.
In Torchetti, 51, the Wings got everything they were looking for on their wish list for an assistant coach.
Wings coach Jeff Blashill sought to add someone to his staff with NHL head coaching experience, and Torchetti has plenty of that, all of it in perhaps the toughest assignment of all for a coach, as a mid-season replacement with the Wild, the 2003-04 Florida Panthers and the 2005-06 Los Angeles Kings.
“Certainly it’s a difficult challenge and I think it gives him a real unique perspective,” Blashill said of serving as an interim head coach.
It was Torchetti’s variety of coaching roles that most intrigued Blashill about what his new assistant could bring to the table.
“He’s had a number of different positions in the National Hockey League, in the American Hockey League,” Blashill said. “He’s coached in the KHL (with CSKA Moscow), he’s coached major junior (with the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats). That’s a lot of experience behind the bench in a lot of different situations.
“I think experience helps. I think experience – part of the process I wanted was to get someone who had experience not just in the National Hockey League, and as I said from the outset, preferably someone who has spent time as a head coach in the National Hockey League, but also somebody that has a vast area of experiences that we can draw upon.
“I think you can learn from the past and I look forward to learning lots of the lessons that he’s had to learn throughout his career.”
Blashill indicated that Torchetti was among five candidates he interviewed, a list that included former NHL head coaches Todd Richards and Dave Cameron.
It was Torchetti’s ability and skill set, as well as his level of experience, that convinced Blashill he was the right man for the job.
“The areas I think John can really help us is, one, he’s got lots of experience in running a bench, he’s got a little different ideas than I do and I think there’s things I can learn from him in terms of bench management.
“I really liked his details on the power play. He’s going to oversee our power play and I thought he was impressive in the little details he looks for to help in adjustments and help in maximizing a power play and he’s got a great passion to help individuals get better.
“He gets on the ice in the summer to work hockey schools that are training young athletes just to keep his teaching methods sharp and I think one of the greatest areas or growth on our team is continued internal development of our players.
“I had a relationship with John; we were competitors in the American League. I’ve known him for a couple of years. I’ve always been impressed with his hockey knowledge, always been impressed with his approach and certainly impressed with his passion and his loyalty.”
Another quality Blashill likes that both of his new bench assistants bring to the team is that the are Stanley Cup winners as coaches. Torchetti won as part of Joel Quenneville’s staff with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2009-10 and Doug Houda was a Cup winner with the Boston Bruins as an assistant to Claude Julien in 2010-11.
“I’ve talked lots about the fact that I believe we got winners in our room and I believe with the additions of Doug Houda and John Torchetti, two guys that have won a Stanley Cup as assistants, that really increases that to a greater degree, having guys on our staff of guys who have experience of winning a Stanley Cup.”
One challenge they face is that Blashill, Houda and Torchetti have never worked together before, so they’re going to need time to all get on the same page in terms of the approach they want to implement with the Wings.
“Hiring two new people, what that does to me is to make sure … it has to sharpen my ability to get the message across of what I want us to be about,” Blashill said. “I just spent two days in a coaching development group and trying to improve in a lot of different areas as a coach, Xs and Os and things like that. One of the other things was messaging.
“I have to make sure I can give a real clear message to not only Doug and John, but (assistant coach) Pat (Ferschweiler) and (video coach) David (Noel-Bernier) and the rest of our staff, (goalie coach) Jeff Salajko, on exactly what we want to be about, both from a day-to-day basis, from how we treat players, to how we’re going to play hockey.
“It’s a great chance for me to really heighten that message. As a group we’ve got to get together. We’re going to start that at the draft and then we’ll get together periodically throughout the summer and have lots of opportunities to have conference calls and make sure come October we’re on the same page and we’re acting according to the values and the identity of how we want to play.”
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